1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a computer-implemented interactive system in which a computer can react to the occurrence of physical events by selecting and processing a stored action item so as to cause additional data processing or a controlled hardware response. More specifically, the invention is directed to an event interpreter which, based on the physical event, selects and processes an action item from a collection of action items which together form the interactive system, as well as to a method which uses the computer file system to create, modify and view the action items in the interactive system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer-controlled interactive systems allow a computer to sense the occurrence of a physical event and to react to the physical event in accordance with a stored application of predefined responses, such as by performing specific data processing or by controlling hardware equipment. For example, in the case of an interactive voice response (IVR) system, a computer can sense the occurrence of an incoming call, respond by controlling the telephone to go off-hook and by playing out a series of user options, and can then sense the occurrence of dual tone modulated frequency (DTMF) tone commands from the caller and respond with appropriate data processing and telephone hardware control sequences.
Because of the complexity of interactive systems, they are ordinarily designed by highly trained software engineers using sophisticated and complicated software programming techniques. And, because the interactive systems must be created to an end user's specifications, most interactive systems are customized to that single user's requirements and cannot easily be tailored to other user's requirements. Thus, once an interactive system has been designed and coded, if changes are required, then either a new system must be written or the old system must be revised by highly trained software engineers at great expense.
Recently, some interactive systems have become available which allow their owner to make minor modifications on his own. However, in these cases the modification capability is itself a new program which the owner must learn and, once learned, it can only be used to modify the interactive system and not for any other purpose.
Thus, current modification capabilities are specifically tailored for their associated interactive systems and cannot be used flexibly for other interactive systems.